Lima

I flew from Cusco to Lima for just two days before heading home for a short break in my trip (more on this later). Here's what my whirlwind tour of the city looked like.

From the airport, went for a traditional Peruvian lunch at Cesar's house (Cesar is a good friend of Alvaro, a Peruvian friend of mine from law school). Here's Cesar in his lovely backyard. Lunch was great, and afterwards he took me out for desert. More on the food in the "comida tipica" section.

Later that night, I met up with Fernando, a lawyer and friend of Lourdes (another friend from YLS). We had a great conversation about liberal democracy and corporate law. He says he's going to read my paper on campaign finance--I'll add him to the list.

I started out the next day with trip to the Museo de la Nacion, where I saw exhibits on indigenous art and Peru's modern brush with terrorism.

For lunch, I met up with Sara and Zooey who work at Innovations for Poverty Action (www.poverty-action.org), an NGO that works to conduct statistically sound studies of micro-lending programs. Sara happens to be the daughter of the lawyer I used to sell my apartment in New Haven.

We had a great lunch of traditional food and conversation about their work and lives as ex-pats in Lima--ranging from the joys and challenges of working with indigenous communities to their experiences dating Peruvian guys (they can be a bit controlling as it turns out). Here's the IPA crew in their office (Zooey is at far left):

After lunch, I headed to Lima's main plaza. First, I saw the cathedral, which features Francisco Pizarro's tomb.

Next, I ducked around the corner to see San Francisco Monestary and the famous catacombs underneath. Pictures are not permitted inside, but here's what the outside looks like:


Then I circled back to the main plaza (called, shockingly enough, the Plaza de Armas) and got these shots as the sun was setting.

Palacio de

Gubierno

City Hall

I closed out the evening with dinner and drinks with Cesar, and got up at 3:30am to catch my flight to New York (with a full day layover in Panama) the next day.

I liked Lima and wished I had more time to spend there. Cesar, Fernando, Sarah, and Zooey were all great. I think I could have had a lot of fun there if I had another week.